Address: Via Cavour, 1
After rejecting
Brunelleschi's
plans Cosimo the Elder commissioned from Michelozzo (1396-1472)
the design of his palace in Via Larga, now via Cavour, near the
family church of
San Lorenzo.
This new palace was begun around 1444 and represented the real
arrival of the Renaissance palace type in Florence with each
floor clearly delineated and a huge cornice crowning the roofline.
The
relationship of the elegant windows and the rustication is
particularly beautiful. On the ground floor the closed arcade at
the corner was formerly a public loggia and the two asymmetrical
doors led to the typical fifteenth century courtyard based on
Brunelleschi's ideas. By 1460 the palace was complete, but
already in 1517 the original building had been altered, by
closing the loggia and adding the two windows by Michelangelo.
Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici had lived here, but the palace was
abandoned by Grand Duke Cosimo I in 1540 when he and his wife
moved to
Palazzo Vecchio as
part of his new vision of Medici power. The lesser members of the
family continued to live in it until Grand Duke Ferdinando II
(1610-1670) sold it to the Marchesi Riccardi. This was when the
palace was enlarged on the rear side and the Gallery holding Luca
Giordano's important Baroque frescoes was constructed. The large
entrance staircase by Giovan Battista Foggini (1652-1725) was
then added, Baroque decorations added to the courtyard and to the
interiors, leaving only some wooden ceilings. Above all the
enlargement of the Via Larga facade took place, seven additional
windows now bringing the number to seventeen on the first and
second floors: this was carried out in 1715 in a way designed not
to disturb the original building of Michelozzo. Until 1814 it
belonged to the Riccardi family, but when Florence was Capital of
Italy it became the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior
and from 1871 the Prefettura.
Riccardo
Romolo Riccardi had already shown a passion for the arts and
letters when he began collecting classical sculputures for his
villa at Valfonda at the end of the sixteenth century. At the
same time he founded the first nucleus of books, later to form
part of the famous Riccardian library.
However, after a period of great splendour, the considerable
patrimony of the Riccardis had notably diminished by the end of
the eighteenth century and during the first years of the
nineteenth century financial difficulties were such that the
Riccardis were forced to auction the most beautiful objects from
their collections of paintings, statues, jewels and coins.
Finally, in 1847 the Riccardi family died out and the name and
title passed to the Mannelli Galilei.
Today, the old chapel frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1459 is
undergoing restoration. It will be reopened as from 1992. Here
Gozzoli (1420-1497) painted the tiny space in the heart of the
original palace (later disrupted by the construction of the
staircase) with the
Procession of
the Magi. In it, he portrayed the train of the Concilio which
met in Florence in 1439, including portraits of the Medici placed
close to those of their powerful friends. This was probably the
first example in a religious setting of such secular usage, and
signals the beginning of the Medici power. The altarpiece is by
Filippo Lippi.
